FILE PHOTO: A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict outside Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhia region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, June 15, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
(Reuters) -Operators carrying out maintenance at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant have switched the shutdown mode of two reactors, the Moscow-installed administration of the plant, located on the war's front-line, said on Tuesday.
Europe's largest nuclear plant was captured by Russian forces in March 2022. Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling around the station and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been trying to set up a safety mechanism to prevent accidents.
One of the plant's six reactors, according to the IAEA, needs to be kept in a hot shutdown mode in order to produce steam required for nuclear safety, including the processing of liquid radioactive waste in storage tanks.
"In order to conduct a scheduled technical inspection of the equipment of power unit No. 5, the management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant decided to transfer it to the 'cold shutdown,' state," the administration said on its Telegram channel.
"And in order to provide steam for the station's own needs, the reactor plant of power unit No. 4 was transferred to the 'hot shutdown' state."
The IAEA said in a statement on Monday that the plant administration had informed the agency about the transition.
"The other units remain in cold shutdown," the IAEA said in the statement.
Moscow says the plant will eventually be connected to Russia's power grid. None of the plant's six reactors has been producing electricity. Ukraine has vowed to retake the plant and all land in Ukraine that is now occupied by Moscow.
IAEA inspectors stationed at the plant had noted mines in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers and had also observed mines during previous checks, Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, said on Monday.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
